Day 39: A Loop Walk Around the Southern Tip of Achill from Achill Sound (10.7 miles)

I did this walk last Saturday (July 2nd). It's taken a while for me to get around to writing about it because ... well, I've been rushing around. I had to go home for a week because Minty sprung a leak. I woke up on Thursday morning (23rd June) with rain pouring in on top of me. The weather is always going to be a challenge in Ireland so I decided that I had to go back home and get Minty water-tight again before going on. I came back on Friday, driving from East Sussex to Sligo, where I spent the night before pressing on to Achill. I parked Minty up, walked 10.7 miles, got back in Minty and drove to Galway. I was really quite pooped after that.  So here it is, finally, my fantastic walk around the southern tip of Achill Island.

In complete contrast to the last time I was in Achill, on Saturday for most of the walk the sun was out in all its glory. It was a little grey when I arrived but it cleared up quickly as I headed south from Achill Sound towards Bleanaskill. Here I l turned right  towards Ashleam on the other side of the peninsula. Then the fun began. The Minaun Cliffs came into  view and also the corkscrew road that wound its way up to them. The first of the Wild Atlantic Way viewpoint markers was just about visible from ground level. Carefully I walked past sheep (who are notoriously jumpy) and who were playing very vigorously on very dangerous cliff edges. At the top the views were glorious.

I'm so glad I didn't attempt to do this walk on June 23rd because the visibility was atrocious and it would have been criminal to miss such incredible views. 

I walked on taking it all in. I was also keeping an eye on my trails app because at precisely 5.7miles into my walk I had officially walked 500 miles! I took the time to record this momentous occasion with my iPhone. However when I went to take another photo my phone told me that I had no more memory left. Not a bother. I had my camera with me. It's my camera that takes all the photos for the blog. Unfortunately my camera refused to turn on because it had a flat battery. I'd lent it to my son to go on a school trip the previous Monday and I'd forgotten to charge the battery up again. Undeterred I started deleting apps form my phone until it started to let me take more photos.  Honestly-  technology eh!

Me celebrating 500 miles before all the technology gave out!

As I rounded the southern tip of the peninsula, the sea got calmer and the cliffs disappeared. I was walking back towards Bleanaskill again. My intention was to walk to the point where I'd turned off the road and to hitch back to Achill Sound. I had one little stop-off to make before that though - Achill Lifeboat Station. I had called in the week before and met Stephen. I was planning on calling in the following day to take a few pictures and meet everyone (have a cuppa, use the loo - the usual), however due to the whole leak situation I didn't manage it. Before I left Achill I popped in to explain what had happened and I said I'd call in when I came back. So here I was, back again and heading for the Station. I could see the Lifeboat moored in the bay close to Gráinne Mhaol's castle. Gráinne was a very successful pirate in the 16th Century. You can read all about her HERE. I was looking forward to a cup of tea and, of course, I was in need of a bathroom. As I stopped to take pictures of the castle and lifeboat a thought occurred to me: it was Saturday - what if there wasn't anyone there? Forget the tea, I really needed a pee. 

Guess what? There wasn't anybody there. I still had a few miles to go before I finished. I wouldn't make it that far. Nothing for it - I had to go al fresco. I managed to find a spot that wasn't overlooked by any houses (which is very hard to do in Ireland) although I did have an audience of a few bemused sheep.  Still I'm just glad no cars came along and I didn't inadvertently flash my derriere at anyone. Much relieved I walked on. With about a mile to go the skies darkened and then split in two as the rain came bucketing down. I was soaked. I arrived at the junction, turned my trails app off and stuck my thumb out. The first car that came along very kindly took me back to Minty in Achill Sound. I changed out of my wet clothes, had a quick bite to eat and then got back in the van and drove for another two hours to Galway to stay with my sister. I'd been travelling pretty much solidly for two days. All I could do was veg in front of a movie for the evening. Hence the tardiness of this post.

I slept in on Sunday and it was lunch time by the time I'd packed up and got on the road again. I had decided to skip Co. Galway out because I'm saving it for when my husband comes over for a holiday in mid-July. As I drove out of Galway city, my intention was to drive to Kinvara and to walk from there to near Ballyvaughan, crossing the county border from Galway to Clare. As I arrived in Kinvara I knew I'd made a serious miscalculation. It was absolutely heaving with tourists and all their assorted vehicles: buses, campers, bikes, motorbikes, cars ... The road was barely passable for two normal-sized vehicles going in opposite directions let alone two coaches! If I walked I would have been squished like a bug. So I didn't walk. Instead I drove the road as far a Doolin, recce-ing it and seeing what was ahead. One thing was for sure - if I was going to walk this road I was going to have to do it before the  traffic started in the morning. I was going to have to start at 6am. 

Tune in tomorrow for my early morning hike from Doolan to Fanore...

But before that here are a few lovely flowers from Achill -

Raising money of the RNLI on www.justgiving.com/Jane-Volker

Total mileage: 505 miles